Sidi Bou Said

Today we drive to Sidi Bou Said which is built somewhat on top of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Ancient Carthage.

We stopped along side the road where a woman was cooking bread in something like an Indian tandoor.

Then a quick stop to stretch legs, bathroom break and ice cream.

We had an hour long visit to the North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial.

I did see a pair of European Serins chasing each other, but wasn’t able to get a photo.

This mosaic of Neptune is an 1800 year old original given to the US by the President of Tunisia on the condition that it remain in Tunisia, so it is displayed here.

Lunch at Malibu restaurant. It was deconstructed chicken schwarma. The restaurant had lots of young people or parents with teenagers.

Ancient Carthage was destroyed by the Romans, then the Romans rebuilt on top. Bysra Hill which was the founding spot was shortened and the dirt used as fill over the surrounding homes to make a larger flat area for the Romans to build on.

Later much of Roman Carthage was destroyed by the Arab invaders. Modern buildings are built on top of that.

After lunch we first visited the Carthage Cisterns. These are the ending point for the Zaghouan Roman aqueduct that carried water to Carthage that we saw near Uthina a few days ago.

Our guide remembers visiting these cisterns in 1989 and there were folks living in them and using them to house their animals. A Japanese company paid for some of the refurbishment of the aqueduct and part of the money went to relocate those people out of the cisterns.

Next we went to Bysra Hill. This has a few Ancient Carthage ruins that were buried under the Roman fill. The tall pillars along the back are Roman, to hold up the building built above this when it was filled in.

Bysra Hill also has the Former St. Louis Cathedral that is now a tourist site.

Finally, we went to the Baths of Antoninus Pius. All that is left here are the foundations and a few broken pieces.

Most of the blocks, columns and marble of the baths were taken to Kairouan to build the Mosque.

Notice how similar the above piece is to the marble around the door in the minaret in Kairouan. The block to the left of the door also has “ANTONINI” in it, referring to Antoninus Pius.

Leaving the site, we passed by a row of vendors and saw these Sahara Roses for sale. These are formed via natural geological processes.

Interestingly, these roses also formed in the Kansas/Oklahoma area.

We then went to our hotel. It is in an area with very narrow streets and our bus can’t drive to it. So a van came and took our luggage up and we walked up the narrow streets to it. The hotel had strawberry juice for us as we checked in.

We walked around some after resting.

There was a wedding at the restaurant next to the hotel and they played loud dance music until 11pm. We leave for the airport tomorrow morning.